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‘NCIS’ Star Mark Harmon Had Impressive Football Career Before Pursuing Hollywood

NCIS star, Mark Harmon, is one of the most recognizable TV stars in the world. However, before his Hollywood career took off, he had a promising career playing football.

In fact, Harmon was a star quarterback at UCLA and was actually pretty good. Additionally, Harmon is not the only excellent football player in his family. In fact, his dad, Troy Harmon, was a Heisman Trophy-winning running back. While Mark Harmon didn’t have quite the success his father did, he was still talented.

Out of high school, Mark Harmon was not given any scholarships to play college football, so he went to Pierce Junior College. At junior college, he played quarterback and led the team to a 7-2 record. Additionally, he was given an All-American award while playing there.

After his success playing for the junior college, the scholarship offers came flooding in. Harmon eventually decided to remain in Southern California to play for the Bruins.

Mark Harmon’s Collegiate Football Career

While the first year at UCLA Harmon didn’t play, his second season there he did. Mark Harmon took over a 2-7-1 team and helped to transform them. In fact, his first career collegiate game was an upset of the two-time national champions, Nebraska Cornhuskers.

During his time at UCLA, Harmon played incredibly well, especially while running the ball. In his two years there, he had 1,504 yards rushing and 14 rushing touchdowns. He also had 845 passing yards and 9 passing touchdowns. Altogether, not too shabby of a college career.

Even though the UCLA Bruins went 8-3 in his first year and 9-2 in his second year, the team never got to play in Bowl games. However, Mark Harmon was not too concerned with his football career. In fact, he was able to graduate cum laude in 1974, boasting a 3.45 GPA.

While his football path eventually came to an end, Hollywood was waiting with open arms. It is safe to say that he has been having a more successful acting career than a football career.

[H/T Pop Culture]